Why didn’t the AFL have a super league war?

[Homo man69]

Why did Murdoch pick us and not them? Surely they were generating more money at the time or why didn’t he go at both. The AFL always seem to worm their way out of things. Just look at the concussing fiasco. Not a word about AFL. I wonder how they would of recovered from a super league war.

 

[carlosthedwarf]

Because it's a terrible sport (to watch on TV)

 

[AlwaysGreen]

23 years ago.

Time to move on.

 

[mave]

23 years ago.

Time to move on.

Easy for those on the" winning side" to say.

For the rest of us, we will never forget.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Because at the time, Rugby League was by far and away the number 1 sporting code in the country.

 

[The_Wookie]

Why did Murdoch pick us and not them? Surely they were generating more money at the time or why didn’t he go at both. The AFL always seem to worm their way out of things. Just look at the concussing fiasco. Not a word about AFL. I wonder how they would of recovered from a super league war.

The AFL had forced all its clubs into franchise agreements which gave them a lot of rights that clubs cant really market themselves without, and the threat of a split in the league was avoided in 1986 when the clubs got the independent commission. In 1993, the AFL clubs literally voted themselves out of any power over the leagues operations. Throw in ground rationalisation and several clubs being reliant on the league for assistance in the 90s, and it was never going to happen.

 

[ReddFelon]

Same reason the AFL tends to win out in most situations; they just seem to attract smarter administration from club to state to national. Even their expansion efforts were operated more efficiently; by 1990 they has a club in every major city, by 97 they had rationalised struggling Victorian clubs and expanded the key growth states while strengthening their Queensland expansion by forcing an established Victorian club to merge with them. By 2012 they had 2 teams in each expansion market.

Every single issue from admin to expansion was handled better. They never had a Super League War because they weren't dumb enough to let it happen.

 

[Knuckle-dragger]

f**k the AFL.

 

[siv]

SL War was triggered when the PMT consirtium Packer-Murdoch-Telstra was forced to split in 1993. It evolved into Packer who had RL Pay-TV rights v Murdoch battle

Murdoch via News Lts owned the Broncos who was influenced by Ribot propaganda

On the AFL front there would have been the potential for a SA and WA v Victoria style of Broncos situation

But Channel 7 owned the TV rights and wasnt in the initial PMT shitfight

RL had just gone national after a successful 1982 and 1988 expansion AFL wasnt there yet

Maybe AFL also learnt how to manage things better after the VFL v VFA split

 

[Pistol_Pete]

Because John Ribot knew that ET and Laurie Daley would be household names in Beijing whilst Wayne Carey was barely known outside Morwell and Wagga

 

[Perth Red]

Murdoch did pick them as well, just they decided to play him not fight him.

 

[ReddFelon]

RL had just gone national after a successful 1982 and 1988 expansion AFL wasnt there yet

This part is incorrect, by 1987 the AFL had the Eagles in Perth, the Bears in Brisbane and the Swans in Sydney. They had a wider national footprint if anything.

 

[Western_Eel]

NRL players and clubs were extremely underpaid at the time so it was more cost effective

 

[Dogs Of War]

Super league came about all due to Pay TV rights. Not sure what the NSWRL was thinking at the time giving them for free to Packer as part of his free to air rights. They were way more valuable than that.

 

[parra_jesus]

If anybody is intrested there is this awesome podcast by rugby league digest (google them) and it is currently doing a whole thing about the super league war! It is 6 episodes deep atm and is only now starting to actually talk about the 95 season onwards. A lot of back talk about the things leading up to the war etc. Definitely worth a listen!

 

[thorson1987]

Super league came about all due to Pay TV rights. Not sure what the NSWRL was thinking at the time giving them for free to Packer as part of his free to air rights. They were way more valuable than that.

Rugby league has never been known for smart admin.

 

[magpie_man]

Rugby league is considered to be the ultimate television sport by many in the industry, both back then and now. Nearly all of the action is concentrated to a small portion of the field at any given time - the area surrounding the play - and it can be easily captured by a television camera.
Aussie rules, by contrast, has a huge amount of action happening off the ball which doesn't particularly translate well to television. When the play is concentrated to a narrow area it is usually a ruck which is quite messy and chaotic and not all that enjoyable to watch.
Furthermore, whilst the AFL did indeed have a broader national footprint at the time, several of their expansion teams were basket-cases with the only club doing really well being the West Coast Eagles. Compare that to the ARL who had two of its expansion clubs dominating the competition in the Canberra Raiders and Brisbane Broncos.
Additionally, the ARL completely dominated Australia's most populous and financially powerful city in Sydney.

 

[siv]

Super league came about all due to Pay TV rights. Not sure what the NSWRL was thinking at the time giving them for free to Packer as part of his free to air rights. They were way more valuable than that.

I think was around 1990-92

Pay-TV was still a idea during that TV rights cycle with little or no consumers and huge start up costs

Packer-Murdoch-Telstra proposal would have been on the drawing board with the opposition being small microwave dish group

TV broadcasting was only Fri & Sunday replay and the ABC game on Saturday. Midweek Cup had moved to a pre-season comp. Regionals had started to do a game locally

So paying money for no consumers and PMT not formally approved was no surprising. Its the initial duration that the NSWRL miss understood in a landscape just about to have a paradigm shift with the PC and interent about arriving

 

[Dragon_psa]

Not played anywhere outside Australia, so no Tests or other internationals to capitalise on.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

It's coming...